Lucky Mahjong Resources

[Adam Makin]

PimaCounty Public Library has always been my home. I am a born-and-raised Tucsonan who has loved the Library from an early age. As a child, my family attended many Library events. As a teen, I volunteered at Himmel Park Library helping with the Summer Reading Program. I saw firsthand how the Library was an enjoyable, safe, and warm place for families to grow.

In college, I worked at Martha Cooper Library. This Library saw me through graduation and a short time as a special education teacher. I enjoyed working with the public, helping them find books, resources, and answering computer questions. I especially loved helping with Storytime. I am shy and introverted by nature, so it fascinated me to see the way staff interacted with children and families in such a positive, outgoing way. That sense of community was a beautiful sight to see.

After two years as a special education teacher, I made the difficult decision to leave teaching. My experience taught me that, though I have a passion for education, the traditional school setting was not for me. This is what drove me back to the Library, and I was lucky enough to get a full-time position at Murphy-Wilmot Library.

I get to work with a wonderful community of people who regularly visit Murphy-Wilmot Library. Every Friday afternoon, we offer a Hong-Kong Mahjong group for adults. The group is made up of wonderful people from very diverse backgrounds. I enjoy hearing their stories, laughing, and snacking as we play a few rounds of the game.

The Lunar New Year, known by various names such as Spring Festival in China and Tết in Vietnam, celebrates the beginning of a new year on the lunisolar calendar. This means that the dates are determined by the moon (lunar) and the sun (solar). 2024 is the Year of the Dragon, a symbol of strength and fortune in many Asian traditions.

Families gather for a reunion dinner to celebrate what they hope for in the new year. In China, a feast might include dishes like dumplings for prosperity, while in Korea, a special meal of Tteokguk (rice cake soup) is enjoyed, symbolizing the gaining of a year in age.

Some common celebrations during Lunar New Year include fireworks, parades, and the famous Lion dance. It is believed that a dancing lion will chase away evil spirits and bring good luck. This tradition, while originating in China, is enjoyed in various forms in Vietnam and other cultures.

Some families may exchange red envelopes, known as hong bao in China and l x in Vietnam. These envelopes, filled with money, are traditionally given to children and unmarried members of the family, symbolizing the transfer of fortune and blessings for the year ahead.

The Lunar New Year activities end with the Lantern Festival, where the night sky is illuminated with lanterns, symbolizing the guiding of lost souls homes and the bright future ahead. This tradition, while having its roots in Chinese culture, is echoed in various forms across different Lunar New Year celebrations.

Lunar New Year is celebrated by various Asian cultures, each with its own unique traditions and activities. While eating festive foods like Nian Gao and playing games such as mahjong are common in Chinese celebrations, Vietnamese Tết involves giving lucky money and enjoying bnh chưng, Korean Seollal is marked by wearing hanbok and eating tteokguk, and Mongolian Tsagaan Sar features ceremonies that respect elders and traditional dishes like buuz. Acknowledging these varied traditions offers a more inclusive view of the Lunar New Year.

On Lunar New Year, several activities are traditionally avoided to ensure good luck and prosperity for the coming year. These include washing hair or clothes, which is believed to wash away good fortune, sweeping or taking out garbage, which can sweep away wealth, using sharp objects like knives and scissors, which could cut off good luck, and engaging in arguments or using unlucky words, as they are thought to bring negativity. Additionally, giving certain gifts such as clocks, which symbolize running out of time, and pears, which represent separation, is also discouraged. These customs vary across cultures but share the common goal of welcoming the new year with positivity.

Christine Li 0:01

Welcome back to the Make Time for Success podcast. This is episode number 112.

I have to admit to you that I felt a little bit funny, posting today's episode, because today's episode is on the topic of luck. It's called how absolutely anyone can find their luck every day or something like that title. And the reason why I felt a little twinge of anxiety about it is because I know that there are many people in the world who don't feel like we can affect reality. They feel that there's reality. And then there's reality. And I, with all due respect to that portion of the universe, beg to differ. I really believe that the way we perceive things, the way we experience things, the way we allow things to be in our lives and world really makes a difference. And that the way we take advantage of all the things around us also makes a difference in the world. There's an exchange of energy, even when we are sitting still, even when we're not making decisions even when we're not acting. But there's a really big exchange of energy. When we are intentional when we are going for our dreams when we are building things that nobody's ever seen before. These are magical, yes, but they're also things that we have some connection to, and I'm going to discuss all my thoughts about this topic of luck, and creative magic perhaps in today's episode. So let's go listen to this episode together now.

Hi, I'm Dr. Christine Li, and I'm a psychologist and a procrastination coach. I've helped 1000s of people move past procrastination and overwhelm so they can begin working to their potential. In this podcast, you're going to learn a powerful strategies for getting your mind, body and energy to work together so that you can focus on what's really important and accomplish the goals you want to achieve. When you start living within your full power, you're going to see how being productive can be easy, and how you can create success on demand. Well, welcome to the Make Time for Success podcast.

Hello, my friends. Today I'm going to talk about luck. And the reason I chose this topic for today's podcast episode is I saw a very funny video on tick tock tick tock is a social media platform where people describe their experiences in life. And there's all sorts of videos on that platform ranging from political, to videos of people creating food, to stories of heartbreak to stories of little puppies connecting with human beings. It's, it's basically the whole range of human experience in a social media app or platform. And so this video that I saw was of a young woman sitting in her car, describing her experiment with using the phrases, I am so lucky, everything is going right for me. And the great thing about this video, which garnered more than 7 million views is that she was describing all the wins that she quickly had right after saying those words to herself. I am so lucky, everything is going right for me. What happened to her is that she scored cheap flights to Vegas, and then she was able to convince her friends to go with her. And then later that same day, she went to get a manicure, she found someone that she knew in the salon and that person without prompting, offered to pay for her manicure. So this young woman landed back in her car and was near hysterical, saying to herself, I am so lucky, everything is going right for me because she was trying to generate even more good fortune. for herself. This was such an adorable little Tiktok. And again, if prompted this ripple effect of me sharing with you my ideas about how to get luck for yourself, I encourage you to be like the young woman in the car in the Tiktok video, because all that she has accessed is also available to you and I'm going to explain why. I have three ideas. The first idea is that when we start to believe that we're lucky, we start not seeing only the dark corners of every room before you start to believe in positive thinking positive mindset and the law of attraction which is this stuff that when we believe we are lucky we start to generate luck. Then we stop having to only focus on things that worry us the worry the anxiety, the stress, the jealousy, the envy, the lack the calamity that might be around the corner, the fear, the danger. And we start to see instead, the entire room. And the entire room is really, really big, the entire room is filled with possibilities where people might pay for your manicure where you might be in Vegas the next day. And when we're focusing only on our stress and our worry, we can't see those free trips and those fun events. And those fun encounters those happy accidents, because we're focused in the dark corner of our room, and we ended up being trapped in that dark corner. And I want to have you all be released from that dark corner thinking. And I want you to start thinking about all the opportunity and the possibility that exists around you, right, as you're listening to this podcast episode, you're basically going to free yourself of fear, when you start seeing all the possibility that is around you. It's not that negative things don't happen and that they don't exist. I'm not crazy, at least not right now. And I want you to see that you can relax and start to lean into this luck of yours. And that's what that young woman in the car did, she just leaned in a little bit. And she saw so much more.

The second idea that I have for you is that when we start to believe that we are lucky, we immediately launch ourselves into a better mood, you don't need chocolate, you don't need a lottery winning, you don't need somebody to give you a gift to put yourself in this better mood, you could just tell yourself, I am so lucky, everything is going right for me. Just saying those words really does elevate your mood. It's funny how that happens. But language is really powerful, isn't it. So when you decide that you are lucky, not only do you give yourself a boost in mood, you also start to do something else, you start to emit positive energy into the world, you start to share that with the world, you can't help it because the way you feel gets transmitted to our animals and to other people. And guess what else happens after that when people sense that they're going to be attracted to your positive energy. Because positive energy is really appealing, it's very attractive. And as a law of attraction teaches us positive energy attracts positive energy, like attracts like, it's as simple as that. When you feel well about yourself, when you feel well about your opportunities. When you feel safe, you're going to be open to attracting people who also feel that way people who are comfortable in their own skin, people who are enjoying their lives, people who want to meet upbeat people, it just works like that. So positive attracts positive, no harm in elevating your positive.

The third idea that I have to share is that when we see ourselves as being lucky, we also transform our state into one of gratitude, we start to feel grateful for what we are about to receive, we start to feel grateful for the things that we can't anticipate that are coming our way or might be on its way. And we start to be in a state of receiving. And that's a pretty calm state. We're not chasing anything, we're not guarding against anything, we're ready to receive, whatever good stuff is in store. And we never know what that might be really, we can't be in control of all of that. So when we're not feeling afraid, when we're feeling more positively, then we're basically not blocked. And one of the best tools for chasing success or having success or being successful, is not feeling afraid and not doubting yourself. So if these two sentences, I am so lucky, everything is going right for me is a quick tool for you to do that. Use those two sentences again, I am so lucky. Everything is going right for me. I want you to experiment with all of this experiment, experiment experiment. Why not? It doesn't hurt. And I think you're gonna find that all of this really works. I'm going to share with you my own personal story of being the girl in the car of that day long, long ago, when I had just read the book, The secret that explains the law of attraction. And I wanted to test out if it really worked, I sat myself down at a massage table. And if you don't know what Mahjong is, it's a Chinese tile game, where four people sit at a table and compete to be the fastest person to win a hand. And what I did that day is I wished for myself to win the game, but also to win it using the hardest hand possible in Mazda, and guess what happened, I think you're gonna know the end of the story. I ended up winning not once, not twice, but three times in a row, with this almost impossible hand to create. So it's kind of like getting a royal flush and poker three times in a row and winning. So as you can imagine, from that point on, I was never a doubter. Again, I fully believe in the power of positive thinking, I consider myself an incredibly lucky woman, and person. And I really intend to keep my life going in that direction. And I hope you'll join me in that pursuit. And in that effort, and in that joy, decide that today is the day where everything will be going your way. Without doubt, it's that doubt that really prevents us from going full force is that doubt that makes us confused about which direction we should be headed in. Is that doubt that makes us feel like we've got a lower mood. So eliminate the doubt head for the lock head for the fun. The world is basically a magical huge version of tick tock, right? There's so much for us to do so much for us to enjoy, and film and video and share our funny stories with our friends, with all my prepositions are spilling out today. But that's because I'm a lucky girl. I'm so lucky to have you as a listener on this show. And I really, really thank you for being here week after week to hear my guests and to hear me talk about things that will help you to make time for success. If you're still doubting that this luck thing really works, I have a tool for you. And if you're really interested in luck, this tool is for you as well. I've created a free downloadable resource to help you connect with your own ability to see the good luck that surrounds you. So it's a free resource all about your ways to see the good luck in your life. To get this free download, just go to procrastination coach.com/lucky Again, it's procrastination coach.com/lucky. And always remember, YOU ARE A lucky lucky person by

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Make Time for Success podcast. If you enjoyed what you've heard, you can subscribe to make sure you get notified of upcoming episodes. You can also visit our website maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com for past episodes, show notes and all the resources we mentioned on the show. Feel free to connect with me over on Instagram too. You can find me there under the name procrastination coach. Send me a DM and let me know what your thoughts are about the episodes you've been listening to. And let me know any topics that you might like me to talk about on the show. I'd love to hear all about how you're making time for success. We'll talk to you soon!

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